The much awaited first authentic English translation on the sciences and principles of tafsir (Qur'anic Commentaries) by the renewer and reviver (mujaddid) of his time, Shaykh as-Shah Waliy'Ullah al-Muhaddith ad-Dihlawi [1762CE], may Allah be pleased with him. Translated here by Shaykh Tahir Mahmood al-Kiani.

Al-Fawz al-Kabir fi Usul at-Tafsir : The Great Victory on Qur'anic Hermeneutics; is a manual of the principles and subtleties of Qur’ānic tafsīr. In it the author outlines the five fundamental sciences that the Qur’ān contains: the science of judgements (ahkām), reminding others of the Favours of Allah, the Days of Allah and the Life after Death, and giving particular attention to the science of polemics. He also reviews the other sciences of tafsīr such as the circumstances of revelation (asbāb an-nuzūl), abrogating and abrogated āyāt (an-nāsikh wa’l-mansūkh) and the unusual words and phrases of the Qur’ān (gharā’ib al-Qur’ān), before concluding the book by looking at the extraordinary and miraculous aspects of the Noble Book, and a final chapter on the meanings of the letters of the Arabic alphabet.

This important work is ideal for those who are studying the Qur'an or simply need a better and clearer understanding.

---The style of the Noble Qur'an in Expressing the Five Sciences,---Every Ayah does not need to have a Cause of Revelation.

Chapter 1 : The Science of Polemic.---A. Those who Associate Partners with Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala,---Rites of the Ibrahamic Way,---Its Laws,---Their Creed,---The Deviation of Those who Associate Partners with Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala,---Clarification of Association of Partners with Allah (shirk),---Description of Anthropomorphism (tashbih),---Description of Alteration (tahrif),---Dismissal of the Belief in the Hereafter,---Considering the Message of the Prophet, salla Allahu 'alayhi wa Sallam, Improbable,---The Ones who resemble those who Associate Partners with Allah the Almighty.---Summary.---Refutation of Association of Partners with Allah,---Refutation of Anthropomorphism, ---Refutation of Their Alteration [of the Natural Revealed Way],---Response to Their Considering their Rising from the Dead & the Gathering Improbable,---Refutation of Those who Deny the Message,---B. The Jews,---Clarification of [the Nature of] Alteration,---Illustrations of the Alteration of Meaning,---Clarification of [their] Concealing Ayat,---Clarification of [their] Fabrication (iftira'),---The Reasons behind their Carelessness and Commission of Prescribed Actions,---Reasons for [their] Considering the Message of Our Master Muhammad, salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa Sallam, Improbable,---Prophethood and It's Method of Reforming People,---Differences in Shari'ah are Similar to Differences in Doctors' Prescriptions,---Those Like the Jews,---C. The Christians,---The Doctrine of Trinity and its Refutation,---First Problematic Issue [Those texts in the Gospel that refer to 'Isa, alayhi as-salaam, as 'The Son'],---Those Like the Christians,---The Doctrine of the Crucifixtion of 'Isa, alayhi as-salaam, and its Refutation,---Their Alteration of the Prophecy of the Paraclete.---D. The Hypocrites.---Hypocrisy in Creed and Hypocrisy in Action,---Examples of the Hypocrites.

Chapter 2 : The Remainder of the Five Sciences---Clarifying the Reminder of the Favours of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala,---Celebrating the Days of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala,---Mentioning the Purpose of Stories,---The Reminder of Death and What is After It,---The Science of Rulings (Ahkam).

[Part II] The Kinds of Meaning Hidden from the People of this Age in the Composition of the Qur'an, and the Removal of their Concealed Nature by the Clearest of Explanations.

---Reasons behind the Difficulty in Understanding the Intended Meanings of Speech.

Chapter 1 : Unusual Expressions of the Qur'an (Gharib al-Qur'an),---The Early Generations would explain an Expression by its Most Obvious Meaning.

Chapter 2 : Abrogating (Nasikh) and Abrogated (Mansukh) Ayat,---The Meaning of Abrogation for the Early Generations,---Number of Abrogated Ayat.

Chapter 3 : The Circumstances of Revelation (Asbab an-Nuzul),---Meaning of 'It was revealed about 'such-&-such' in the First Generations,---Narrations of Hadith Scholars That Have no Connection to the Circumstances of Revelation,---The Precondition for the Commentator in the Area of the Circumstances of Revelation,---Stories of the Prophets Narrated by the People of the Book,---The Form of a Story Which has no Story,---Sometimes They Would assume a Question and Answer in Tafsir,---They may mean being brought forward or Put back in Rank not in Succession,---Two Preconditions for the Commentator.

[PartIII] The Subtleties of the Qur'an's Composition and Explanation of its Marvellous Approach,

Chapter 1 : The Structure of The Noble Qur'an and the Styles of the Surahs in it,---The Beginnings and Conclusions of the Surahs are Like Royal Edicts,---Poetic Format of the Beginning of some Surahs.

Chapter 2 : Division of the Surahs into Ayat and Their Unique Mode of Expression,---The Difference between Ayat and Verses,---What Ayat and Verses have in Common,---Qur'anic Rhymes,---The Secret behind harmonising Long Ayat with Shorter Ayat and vice-versa,---Qur'anic Ayat with Three Main Supports,---The Reason behind a Longer Ayah being with other short ones,---Other Modes of Expression in the Surahs,---The Reason for choosing New Metres and Rhymes.

Chapter 3 : The Logic Behind the Repetition of the Five Sciences and the Lack of Order in Explaining Them.

Chapter 4 : The Inimitable Nature of the Noble Qur'an,---Miracle of Qur'anic Legislation.

[Part IVa] The Varieties of Qur'anic Tafsir and the Differences between the Tafsir of the Companions and the Successors,

Chapter 1 : The Schools of the Commentators,---1. The Tafsir of Muhaddithun (Hadith Scholars),---2. The Tafsir of Muslim Scholars of Kalam,---3. The Tafsir of Experts in Juristic Principles,---4. The Tafsir of Grammarians and Lexicographers,---5. The Tafsir of Master Litterateurs,---6. The Tafsir of Skilled Recitors,---7. The Tafsir of the Sufis,---What Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, has Bestowed Upon me of Knowledge of Tafsir.

Chapter 2 : The Reports in the Commentaries of the Muhaddithun (Hadith Scholars),---Understanding the Backdrop of Revelations via Independent Reasoning (Ijtihad),---Useless matters in Tafsir,---Qur'anic Tafsir by Means of the Noble Qur'an,---Tafsir of Unusual Expressions Used in the Noble Qur'an,---Introduction of Independent Reasoning in Explaining Unusual Expressions,---The Differing Interpretations of the Earlier and Later Generations of the Meaning of Abrogation in such a way as Necessitate Different Views on the Number of Abrogated Ayat.

Chapter 3 : Remaining Subtle Points in this Category,---Deducing legal rulings,---Tawjih (Resolution of Apparent Propblems),---The Excesses of the scholars of Kalam,---Polemic in the Qur'an,---The Linguistic Usages of the Qur'an,---The Syntax of the Qur'an,---Declension of the the Ayah ...,---Knowledge of Semantics and Rhetoric,---Sufic Indications (Isharat).

Chapter 4 : Wonders of the Noble Qur'an (Ghara'ib al-Qur'an),

Chapter 5 : The Outer and Inner States of the Noble Qur'an,

Chapter 6 : Some Divinely-Gifted Sciences,------Interpretation of the Stories of the Prophets.

[Part IVb] Abbreviated Letters,------Introduction.

---Glossary,---Bibliography.

The Author : Qutb al-Din Ahmad ibn 'Abd al-Rahim, popularly known as Shah Wali'Ullah, was born
in 1114AH / 1703CE near Delhi (Dehlawi), a member of a distinguished intellectual
and religious family. He received a highly structured education and
spiritual instruction at the madrassah established by his father, Shah
'Abd al-Rahim, at Delhi. As well as the Qur'an, he studied Arabic and
Persian grammar and literature and the higher philosophical,
theological, metaphysical, mystical and juridical texts. He graduated
from the school when he was barely fifteen years old; in the same year,
his father initiated him into the famous Naqshbandiya Sufi order.

Shah Wali-Ullah of Delhi, arguably the greatest Muslim scholar of eighteenth-century India, made an immense contribution to the intellectual, economic, social, political and religious life of the Muslim community in India, the effects of which persist to the present day.

Shah Wali-Ullah wrote in both Arabic and Persian. He published between fifty and seventy works, with his writings playing a major role in the intellectual and spiritual life of the Muslims in the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent, a role which continues today. Some of these works have greatly changed the Muslim approach to the study of the Qur'an.

The Translator : Imam Tahir Mahmood al-Kiani is a graduate of Jamia Al-Karam, UK and the International Islamic University, Islamabad. He has written many articles and lectured on various topics in Islam, as well as translating from urdu and classical Arabic into English. He was a Lecturer in Advanced Islamic Sciences at the Al-Karam Institute of Islamic Sciences, Jamia Al-Karam, Retford, UK. He is currently engaged in writing and translating classical texts into English. His most recent work was the first English translation of the Hanafi Fiqh manual The Mukhtasr al-Quduri.